Abstract
Discipleship has been, and continues to be, integral to the church’s strategy to simultaneously contribute towards the spiritual formation of its members and also fulfilling its mission. From the very outset of the church, Jesus demonstrated the centrality of discipleship through what he taught and practiced. However, as the United Kingdom moved into the post-Christendom era, the Evangelical Church has grappled with being effective in discipleship. Through a study in the Gospel of Matthew in the transformissional and holistic perspective, the article seeks to aid this vital part of the church’s strategy by suggesting a paradigm shift and reprioritisation of the discipleship emphasis.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article will suggest a paradigm shift to the traditional discipleship discourse of post-Christendom era evangelical churches in the United Kingdom. The research will review Scripture, practical theology and interdisciplinary fields such as the influence of Christianity on health and family to establish a more holistically focussed and transformissional discipleship perspective.
Highlights
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated the prominence of discipleship for the success of his ongoing mission
There is a paradigm shift required when thinking about discipleship in the post-Christendom era Evangelical Church in the United Kingdom
Insights from a study in the Gospel of Matthew reveal that there is a vivid contrast between the discipleship practiced and commissioned by Jesus and discipleship in the context of church explored in the article
Summary
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated the prominence of discipleship for the success of his ongoing mission. He doesn’t divide human ontology into separate faculties, but in the instances when he references individual terms it is from the Hebraic foundation where reference to these terms imply the entire person (Grudem 1994:475) Through his incarnation, Jesus became fully man, experiencing everything common to man, and his teaching supports the holistic understanding of ontology. Jesus’ discipleship was holistic in that it focussed on the entire person being devoted to God. Through following Jesus, an individual is transformed by his presence, example and teaching. The findings from these reports identify that discipleship in this context is predominantly programmatic, church service based, centred on personalities of leaders, focussed on the head and devotional disciplines All of these things are valid, but not at the expense of not discipling believers in their lifestyles, relationships and how to share their faith. The findings of this report do support the interconnected and holistic nature of the human constitution and that discipleship, as a result, should be holistic in focus
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